1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures herein relate to a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printers for producing sales receipts or the like are widely used in cash registers used in stores, ATMs (automatic teller machines) or CDs (cash dispensers) installed in banks, etc. In a printer for producing sales receipts or the like, a thermal head or the like prints on thermal paper serving as recording paper while the recording paper is advanced. After the recording paper is advanced a predetermined length, a predetermined length of the recording paper is cut from the rest of the paper.
Such a printer includes a printer main body and a lid that is rotatably supported by the printer main body. This lid is opened when setting a roll of recording paper in the printer main body. In such a configuration, the thermal head or the like is mounted in the printer main body, and a platen roller is mounted on the lid. Upon the lid being closed, the recording paper is placed between the thermal head or the like and the platen roller. The thermal head or the like prints on the recording paper while the thermal head or the like and the platen roller have the recording paper placed therebetween.
The printer has a cutter mounted thereon, which has a movable blade and a fixed blade to cut the recording paper. With the recording paper being placed between the movable blade and the fixed blade, the movable blade moves toward the fixed blade to cut the recording paper.
A printer having a thermal head mounted thereon generally utilizes a roll of recording paper. There are various types of rolls of recording paper, which may have different diameters, for example. A printer may be designed to take into account a roll having a large diameter. Such a printer allows both a roll of recording paper with a large diameter and a roll of recording paper with a small diameter to be used, but tends to become voluminous.
In general, it is highly required for a printer having a thermal head mounted thereon to have a small size. In cases where a recording paper roll having a small diameter is solely or predominantly used, it is not preferable to employ a large-sized printer allowing the use of a recording paper roll having a large diameter.
A small-sized printer dedicated for a recording paper roll having a small diameter may be manufactured. However, the usage of such a printer is limited because a recording paper roll having a large diameter cannot be used.
It may be desirable to provide a printer that allows both a large-diameter paper roll and a small-diameter paper roll to be used and whose size can be reduced when a small-diameter paper roll is used.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-138590    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-143695    [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-245870